Imagine flying 3,000 miles to see your team denied promotion with the last kick of the game and then lose on penalties.

That is what happened to Rick Nunan, a 46-year-old Ebbsfleet supporter from Maine, USA, who crossed the Atlantic to be at Stonebridge Road for the Vanarama National South play-off final on Saturday.

Rick left his home in Kennebunk on Friday afternoon, flew from Boston to Heathrow overnight and sped across London before catching the train to Ebbsfleet International.

He ran from the station to collect his ticket and meet his friends in the Edinburgh Castle pub before squeezing into the ground as part of a 3,800 capacity crowd.

He started supporting Ebbsfleet when he saw an online appeal by former owners MyFootballClub for people worldwide to sign up to buy the club and has carried on ever since.

Rick said: “On Thursday morning I was sat at work thinking about the fact I had been over for the last game of the season against Eastbourne. I’d booked that trip when the Fleet were 12 points clear, months before.

“I thought ‘we’ve got this sinched up and the last game of the regular season is when we’re going to clinch first place and it’s going to be the party of the decade. I can’t miss that’.

“No sooner had I booked my flight than Fleet started leaking oil and losing points.

“I spent the next two months convincing myself that I was just going to see my friends and it was going to be fun regardless of the fact we weren’t going to win the title.

“I came back home, followed the semi-finals on my phone and something had been bouncing around in my head.

“I tried to ignore it, saying it would be really expensive and stupid if I was to come over for the final, but I shot a text to a friend of mine and said ‘what are the odds of me getting a ticket?’

“In the space of about an hour, there were at least a dozen people saying ‘I’ve got one if he can get his butt over here’.”

Delays at Heathrow put Rick behind schedule, but he arrived in time for kick-off. He said: “The game itself was a blur. I don’t know what was causing it but it seemed like the two halves of football went by in about 15 minutes. I was talking to friends and we couldn’t pin down whether we were on top or if we should be worried.”

Danny Kedwell twice gave Fleet the lead from the penalty spot but Maidstone fought back on each occasion.

Bobby-Joe Taylor’s goal forced extra-time with the score at 1-1, and with Ebbsfleet having regained the lead through Kedwell’s second penalty and just a minute away from going up, Taylor’s cross was eventually poked in by Dumebi Dumaka to stun three sides of Stonebridge Road.

Rick said: “I got really nervous when we made it 2-1. Everybody was like ‘don’t worry, we’ve just got to defend for another 11 minutes’ but it didn’t sit right with me.

"As soon as the ball started pinging around the box like a pinball machine, I actually looked away. I looked down at my boots, I had such a rotten feeling.

“I didn’t even need to see that it went in, I could just hear the crowd.”

Maidstone won the penalty shoot-out which followed, leaving Rick and his friends heartbroken.

But he insisted it wasn’t a wasted journey, saying: “I always come away from these trips with something. Obviously the outcome stings, but these are friends I’ve had for eight or nine years.

“The Fleet supporters I’ve come to know are like a second family. To see these friends and get to hang out with them, spend time with them; in some cases the game is secondary. Not this one – but there were still positives from being able to come over again.”